Netanyahu told Israel Army Radio that, while it will take time to build in the "E1" area, "we will complete the planning, and there will be construction".

Asked why the protesters were removed, Netanyahu said, "They have no reason to be there. I asked immediately to close the area so people would not gather there needlessly and generate friction and disrupt public order."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and rival Iyad AllawiThe current political crisis in Iraq is often portrayed as a sectarian conflict between the Shia prime minister on the one hand and the deputy prime minister and vice-president – both Sunnis – on the other.

No one can claim that sectarianism in Iraq does not exist, but a closer look at the intra-sectarian conflict, sometimes just as bloody, can help paint a more nuanced picture.